With advances in integrated circuit, microprocessor, networking and communication technologies, an increasing number of digital computing devices are being networked together to facilitate the exchange of electronic information. As a result, traditional audio and video content providers such as radio and television studios, recording associations, independent recording artists, and so forth, are increasingly turning to digital communication networks such as the Internet for dissemination and distribution of media content. As a result, protection of the intellectual property rights associated with such digital content has become a concern.
Depending upon the digital rights management (DRM) system employed, a user of a client device (i.e., a consumer) may subscribe to one or more subscription services offered by a content provider. Depending upon the contractual relationship between the user and the content provider as well as the DRM system employed, the user may be permitted to download a certain quantity or type of audio and/or video content from the content provider. Depending upon the particular business model implemented by the content provider for example, some, all or none of the content made available to the user may be copy protected through e.g., the use of encryption.
In order for a user to download or otherwise transfer content to a client device, the user might first be required to register the client device with the content provider. As part of the registration process, the content provider may generate an encryption key that is unique to the user and will be used by the provider to encrypt licensed content for download by the user. Moreover, the provider will typically transmit a license (including the unique user encryption key) to the user's client device where it is securely stored (e.g., in user inaccessible memory.
Content licenses may grant the user access to one or more content items, and may be bound to both the user and the associated client device. Conventional DRM systems typically limit the number of times a particular content item may be copied from one client device to another. For example, under such conventional DRM systems, the content provider may allow the user to only playback their content on up to “N” registered devices. Unfortunately however, if the user has already registered “N” devices and attempts to playback their content on an additional (e.g., “N+1”) device, they will typically be asked to un-register one of their previously registered devices before an additional license will be granted. By un-registering a device, the user's license is typically removed causing playback of the user content to be disabled until the user chooses to re-license their machine. Unfortunately, however, this is not very convenient and is often confusing to the user.